


Family Photo

by shieldivarius



Series: Femslash Yuletide 2014 [18]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/F, Femslash Yuletide, Prompt: Family Photo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 11:41:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5455253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shieldivarius/pseuds/shieldivarius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Melinda and Natasha go on their first <i>actual</i> date.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Family Photo

**Author's Note:**

> All of the Melinda/Natasha stories in this year's Femslash Yuletide are in the same universe and chronological unless stated otherwise!

Natasha resurfaced the day after she'd left two of the Advent Gang members covered in paint on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s doorstep. 

Melinda arrived to work that morning to find Natasha already in the office, sitting at a desk with her feet thrown up on the top of it and her chair tipped back, papers spread across her legs.

 "Nice of you to remember you answer to someone," Melinda said.

Natasha raised her eyebrows as she looked up. "Morning to you, too." She pushed a bakery box across the desk toward Melinda, the lid askew and revealing a couple of muffins inside. 

Melinda frowned at her, refusing to make a move to accept the bribe. "I suppose the last—four, was it?—are in custody by now."

Natasha gave her a tight smile. "I'm not quite that good,” she said. She followed it by holding up a picture between two fingers. "But I'm good enough that I got this."

She held the picture out to Melinda, who took it and appraised it silently. Seven men stood gathered around, grinning at the camera. It looked like a family portrait, or a class picture—carefully grouped and arranged with everyone wearing their best.

Three of the men were recognizable as the members of the Advent Gang they already had in custody and Melinda lowered the picture to look at Natasha, impressed in spite of herself. "Where did you get this?"

Natasha grinned. "Facebook," she said. "Our gang members are  _cousins_." She grabbed a muffin up out of the box Melinda had ignored, throwing it up once and catching it before biting into the top.

Playful, showy, completely the opposite from the Natasha who'd been in this room last. The one who had been so vulnerable when she'd declared that she wanted the Advent Gang busted and the job wrapped up in time for Christmas. 

Melinda looked back over the picture, seeing hints of family resemblance—similar noses, build, hair colour.

"Have you tracked down the other four, then?" 

Natasha took another bite of muffin and shook her head. "I'm almost there. I need another—“ she glanced up at the clock on the wall “—16 hours."

Melinda sighed and sat down. "Can we talk, then?" she asked. 

Natasha nudged the muffins at her again, and Melinda gave in and took one. She worried at the wrapper on it without making any attempt to eat it—she'd had breakfast, though Natasha clearly hadn't. 

"Where've you been?" Melinda asked, aware her ire with Nat's up and vanishing showed in her voice and face.

"Working some leads," Natasha said.

"If you had time to put together a gift and sneak into my apartment to leave it, that's not all you've been doing."

Natasha went still. "Did you like today's?" she asked, a hint of her previous vulnerability returning. 

Melinda realized, maybe a bit too late, that Nat was still wearing the scarf she'd given her. Had she even taken it off since she'd received it?

"I haven't opened it yet." Melinda had rushed out of the apartment this morning without giving thought to the gift Natasha had left. 

Natasha gave a little nod, cutting her gaze away, and pulled her feet off of the desk. Upright again, she spread the Advent Gang files across where she'd previously been resting her legs.

"I think they're going to strike this afternoon again," she said, like they hadn't just been veering into personal conversation territory—or like she wanted to avoid that at all costs.

She pulled out another copy of the photograph she'd given Melinda, tapping her finger on the man in the centre. "I think this is the ringleader. Oldest of the cousins. He lived out in Los Angeles until recently. The thing is..." Natasha trailed off and shook her head. "I can't find a motive. Have the new ones I pulled in said anything?"

Melinda shrugged. "I just got here," she said. "No one asked them anything last night, it was too late and they had to be processed."

Natasha nodded. "I'll check with Hill." She made a note on one of the pages in the file, then checked the clock again. She looked nervous, at least as much as Nat ever looked nervous. She'd looked at the clock a couple of times before her hypothesis of the Advent Gang's timeline, too. What was she waiting for?

Melinda picked part of the edge off of her muffin and popped it in her mouth. She squished a blueberry between her teeth as she sat down and pulled part of the file across to her.

"Tell me," she started. Natasha looked up. "Why the disguise?"

Nat lifted her shoulder in a shrug. "I'm too visible." She tossed a loose hanging curl as she spoke, and it bounced out and back against her cheek. "Disguises are easier."

"You were tailing?" Melinda asked. She looked at Natasha instead of down at the files, trying to read what the other woman wasn't saying and getting nothing.

"Of course." Natasha kept her attention focused on the files, but no doubt she knew Melinda had all of her attention fixed on her.

Nat looked at the clock again, and Melinda frowned.

"What—“

"Would you like to go out for lunch? With me?" Natasha asked, overtop of Melinda's finally trying to ask her what she was waiting for. Her expression open and ernest, she looked right at Melinda now.

Melinda paused, her mind blanking for a moment in surprise. Sometimes—and now was definitely one of them—she felt like she and Natasha had managed to do this entire thing backward. 

"Today?" she asked.

Natasha dropped her attention back to the files. "If you want." Instantly cavalier, like Nat had smelled rejection coming and pulled her defences back down in a crash.

"Of course I will," Melinda said. "But," she paused and narrowed her eyes. "You're not off the hook for taking off. For thinking that you need to solve everything by yourself."

The corner of Natasha's lips quirked up. "We'll discuss it later," she said. 

 

Natasha, it seemed, had spent part of her time AWOL planning out this date.

Notably, their first _actual_ date.

Natasha was the last person on the planet she'd have expected to be a closet romantic. Yet here they sat, at a secluded corner table in a little Italian restaurant, perusing the items on a prix fixe lunch-for-two menu.

Melinda had taken a moment to use the washroom in the restaurant and had glanced around at other patrons when she had. She hadn't seen any evidence of the menu she and Natasha had been given, leading her to believe that Natasha had taken the time to arrange everything with the restaurant beforehand.

While she'd been tracking down—and catching—members of the Advent Gang.

If Natasha hadn't also brought in two gang members, her absence from S.H.I.E.L.D. would look like a ruse. 

"You planned all of this," Melinda said, feeling a little in awe. 

Natasha gave her a smile, a touch of shyness in it. "I..." she trailed off when their server appeared beside the table, a bottle of wine in hand. 

Natasha shifted Melinda's glass closer to the server while he uncorked the bottle, and he poured a splash in in silence. 

"Try it," Natasha said, nodding her chin toward the glass.

"I know almost nothing about wine," Melinda said. She picked up the glass anyway and gave the wine a quick swirl, letting the rich, fruity scent tickle her nose for a moment before she sipped it. She let the flavour spread across her tongue. "It's nice."

Their server poured a little into each of their glasses with a smile, then swept the menus from the table and disappeared.

Natasha cradled her glass in both hands. "I hope you don't mind that I picked everything out. I wanted to do something for you." She gave a tight smile as she said it.

The wine wasn't heavy, and Melinda took a sip to stall on the best way to respond. 

"I know I can be difficult to work with," Natasha said, sounding like she was trying to ease her way into the conversation. "I thought..." She shook her head, and Melinda reached out and brushed her fingers where they practically clung to her wine glass.

"I don't mind. This is nice, thank you."

Their server dropped a basket of bread onto the table, along with two small bottles—oil and balsamic vinegar—and vanished again. From their corner, it was hard to see what was going on in the rest of the restaurant. That was nice. It meant no one could really see them, either, and no one sat close enough nearby to overhear them. 

Natasha smiled, wider this time. "No denials?"

"You've been a pain in the ass to work with this week."

Laughter from Natasha. “Please, don't spare me any of your judgment." She poured a little of the oil out onto her plate and tore a piece of bread in half to run through it.

Melinda smiled. "I'll keep work away from lunch, if you do."

"I was thinking we could expense it. Development of our professional relationship."

Melinda snorted. "No one at HQ's going to buy that one." But oh, if anyone could sell it to them, Natasha could. Melinda almost wanted to see her try, except that she'd already landed herself in a little bit of hot water that week.

"You shouldn't have taken off, you know."

Natasha sighed, sitting back in her chair and returning to tearing her bread apart. "I made progress," she said. "I have a meeting with Hill later, I'll smooth things over then."

Melinda eyed the bottle of wine on the table. "I'm sure," she said. 

"It's not going to happen again."

Melinda believed her, but only because Natasha wouldn't have come back if she needed to disappear to chase down further leads. She'd have stayed gone instead.

Nat tilted her head from side to side, appraising her. "You're mad at me."

"Not mad." Irritated, certainly. Frustrated. "You've stated your motives." But she didn't need the Advent Gang case to be closed by Christmas if Natasha kept pulling little surprises like private, custom menus for two out of her sleeve. 

"You can't deny the effectiveness of my methods."

"I'm not." Melinda took a sip of wine. "No one is."

Natasha looked more disappointed that Melinda hadn't argued than she did smug. She finished off her piece of bread in silence, and continued to hold that silence until after their server had brought the appetizer to the table.

"This is nice," Melinda repeated.

Natasha gave a small smile. "If we're done by Christmas. _If._ What are your plans?" she asked.

"Well, I don't want to be working," Melinda said. "I don't think you should be, either." It dawned on her, dimly, that there were certain conversations people usually had on a first date. _What do you do?_

"I spent last Christmas in an active war zone," Natasha offered. "It's what I do."

"What country?"

Natasha shook her head. She wore a coy little smile. "Classified," she murmured. "But I'm sure you can guess."

"I'm sure," Melinda said, raising her eyebrows.

"What did you do?" Natasha asked.

Melinda's turn to shake her head. What had she done last Christmas? She might've gone out for drinks with a colleague or two—Coulson? She couldn't remember.

"Nothing memorable."

Natasha frowned. "You're so concerned with not working over Christmas," she said. "I thought maybe you had standing plans. Your mom?"

"I haven't been home for Christmas in years," Melinda admitted. And with the Advent Gang around now, she was glad she'd turned down Mom's invitation already this year—they were going to be working through Christmas, even if she didn't want to be.

Not if she had someone to spend the holiday with. Someone who seemed determined that she be able to spend that holiday however she wanted.

Natasha looked befuddled, and she had her eyes narrowed like she was trying to read Melinda and couldn't quite interpret what she saw.

“What?” Melinda asked, lifting an eyebrow. 

“It’s nothing,” Natasha said. But the look didn’t disappear, and shifted into Natasha looking contemplative.

Then she pulled out her phone, and Melinda was surprised when she pulled up the camera app and waved their server over, holding it up. 

“Would you mind?” she asked, in the midst of scraping her chair around the table to sit next to Melinda. 

“Okay,” their server said. “A little bit closer together—there.”

Natasha slid her arm around Melinda’s waist, pulling her so that they leaned into one another, Natasha’s hair brushing softly against her ear.

“Three, two, one, smile!”

**Author's Note:**

> http://shieldivarius.tumblr.com


End file.
